April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Sales of imported vehicles in Korea fell 0.5 percent last month from a year earlier, industry data showed on June 7.

The number of newly registered foreign cars fell to 19,380 in May from 19,470 a year earlier, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association said in a statement.

Sales of diesel-powered vehicles fell 19 percent to 9,952 units last month from 12,238 units a year earlier, it said.

“Korean customers bought fewer diesel models as the government plans to reduce fine dust emissions by reducing the operations of diesel vehicles, a major culprit of fine dust pollution,” a KAIDA spokesman said.

In the January-May period, imported car sales rose 1.2 percent to 94,397 from 93,314 on-year, the statement said.

The share of imported vehicles in the domestic passenger car market rose to 14.7 percent in May from 13.61 percent a year earlier, KAIDA said.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)